By Jerry Markon
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, June 30, 2006

A Department of Homeland Security supervisor has been charged with falsifying immigration documents to help Asian immigrants obtain U.S. citizenship, officials said yesterday.

Robert T. Schofield was arrested Wednesday afternoon at his Fairfax County office, where he is a supervisor for U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, which processes immigration applications.

Over the past decade, the government investigated "numerous allegations of bribery involving Schofield and Asian immigration applicants" when he worked at the former Immigration and Naturalization Service, according to court documents unsealed yesterday. Schofield was demoted at one point for "conduct unbecoming a government employee,'' the documents say, and had an "inappropriate relationship" with a woman connected to an INS criminal probe.

When confronted about that relationship by INS officials, Schofield fled to East Asia, where he made $36,000 worth of unauthorized purchases on his government-issued credit card, according to court documents.

It was unclear when Schofield returned to the United States, how the previous investigations ended and how Schofield became a supervisor when the new Department of Homeland Security took over INS's functions in 2003. Homeland Security spokesman Jarrod Agen would not comment on Schofield's employment history.

"DHS takes any allegations of fraud or misconduct waged against our employees very seriously," said Agen, who said the department is cooperating with the latest investigation of Schofield.

Schofield, of Fairfax County, appeared briefly yesterday in U.S. District Court in Alexandria, where a judge sent him back to jail and set a bond hearing for today. He said he is trying to retain an attorney. Also charged was Qiming Ye, a Chinese citizen who federal officials said acted as an immigration broker, assisting Schofield with the fraud. Both men face one count of fraudulently issuing documents to immigrants.

Immigration experts said the charges could undermine public confidence in DHS and its ability to protect the country's borders when debate is swirling in Washington about immigration reform. The agency is cracking down on corruption and fraud, and DHS's inspector general's office, along with the FBI, investigated Schofield on the criminal charges.

"How come they've never tracked this guy down before? And they're supposed to be protecting us from terrorists? Hello!" said Jeanne Butterfield, executive director of the American Immigration Lawyers Association in Washington. "One would think that if one were a supervisor, he would have an unblemished record and that previous allegations and demotions would send up red flags."

DHS officials would not say how many employees Schofield supervises at the Fairfax-based Washington district office of Citizenship and Immigration Services, where he is responsible for everything from performance reviews to hearing appeals from immigration applicants. Experts on immigration law described him as the equivalent of "middle management."

Court documents said the investigation began last year when an official in Schofield's office filed a complaint about him with the inspector general. The complaint said that Schofield had personally processed and approved an application from an immigrant not entitled to receive citizenship.

The probe expanded when several other immigrants, in San Francisco and New York, tried to gain entry to the United States using stamps on their passports indicating that they had permanent legal residence or held a green card. Investigators traced the stamps, which were fraudulently issued, back to Schofield, according to documents.

Using a cooperating witness and searching immigration application files, authorities determined that Schofield issued hand-typed naturalization certificates to at least 23 immigrants not entitled to receive them, the documents say, adding that Ye, the alleged broker, received nearly $30,000 from one immigrant the pair helped. The documents do not state whether Schofield made money from the alleged arrangement.